| Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? | Quasi-religious – or anti-religious – expression of rage against his creator, expressing in its rhetorical questions a tendancy towards suicide – showing parallels. Linguistic ties and echoes. (Cursed…bestowed?) |
| my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery | The turn in the Creature’s nature. Alliterative feelings. Juxtaposition of his feelings and theirs. (my…misery) |
| I, like the Arch-fiend, bore a hell within me | His fate mirrors Satan’s – which he openly acknowledges. Enveloping and mimicking word order. (I…me) |
| From that moment I declared ever-lasting war against the species | Final shift, an oath he makes to himself. Hyperbolic, melodramatic – rhetoric of different species, calling his humanity into question. (From…species) |
| with a loud scream, I fired the straw | Demonic, depraved, demented destruction. Fire motif. Devilish. (with…straw) |
| forked and destroying tongues | Snakish imagery of the flames. (f…gues) |
| And now, with the world before me, whither should I bend my steps? | More Miltonic allusions, as the Creature wonders what to do next. He retains his view of himself as Adam, and thus, perhaps, redeemable. All open – none of the fixed destiny of Frankenstein’s diction. (And…steps?) |
| nature decayed around me, and the sun became heatless | Pathetic fallacy, as the Creature has been abandoned by humanity, nature also leaves him cold. Mirrors the decay of his heart. (nature…less) |
| The spirit of revenge enkindled in my heart | Fire motif, in the anger that sparks inside him. (The..heart) |
| My daily vows rose for revenge — a deep and deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish I had endured | The Creature’s reaction to the injustice of being shot is very different from Justine’s – he wants revenge. Alliterative ds and repetition. (My…endured) |
| Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me, that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity. If, therefore, I could seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth | What the Creature wants from William. Violent language, even amidst all the hopes of kindness and happiness. Rousseauian ideas. (Suddenly..earth) |
| Let me go,’ he cried; ‘monster! ugly wretch! | William’s words to the Creature. Equating misery and deformity. (Let…wretch!) |
| consumed by a burning passion which you alone can gratify | The fire of anger and rage takes the Creature over – but he still very much uses the language of love towards Victor, establishing a paradoxical bond of love and hate between them. (consumed…fy) |
| but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create. | End of Chapter 16 – the Creature’s ultimatum. Inversion of word order for maximum effect. Gender? (but…create) |
| You may render me the most miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my own eyes | Victor’s ego prevents him from making the Creature more than anything – he doesn’t want to despise himself. Lots of ms, than dramatic b. Lots of personal pronouns. (You…eyes) |
| It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another | The Creature imagines his future with his wife, with an emphatic and determined future tense. Recognises the the inevitability of his hideousness, but makes a virtue of a necessity. (It…another) |
| my life will flow quietly away, and, in my dying moments, I shall not curse my maker | The Creature looks to his own death – very different from his contemplation of suicide. River imagery – but a striking contrast from the mountain stream that Victor brands him as, and the torrent of knowledge that ‘the torrent which … has swept away all [Victor’s] hopes and dreams’ (my…maker) |
| My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor | The Creature’s explanation for his wrong-doings. Deeply relevant to parenting and familial relations. (My…abhor) |
| the justice due both to him and my fellow creatures demanded that I should comply with his request. | Victor’s sense of moral rightness is activated. The justice so important to his father returns to him now. (the..request) |
| I swear, … by the sun, and by the blue sky of heaven, and by the fire of love that burns my heart, that if you grant my prayer, while they exist you shall never behold me again | The Creature’s oath to leave humans in peace. So different to Victor’s later oath on his family’s grave – all bright and pleasant. Another emotive fire – but a good one. (I…again) |
| I never saw any woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection | Very unemotional, cold statement of regard for Elizabeth. Seems very composed, contrived, with neat alliteration. Hyperbole. (I…affection) |
| Alas! to me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay. I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled, and dared not break; or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family! | Victor’s real thoughts about marriage. It pales into insignificance beside the bond with his creature. Foreshadows Elizabeth’s fate. Alliteration. Exclamative. (Al…family!) |
| deadly weight yet hanging round my neck | Ancient Mariner reference – suggests he’s earned it for himself. The Promise to the Creature is the result of killing the albatross. A harbinger for the death of his family – like the mariner’s crew (de…ck) |
| But through the whole period during which I was the slave of my creature, I allowed myself to be governed by the impulses of the moment | Victor recognises the Creature’s mastery over him. Possessive pronoun indicates the reversal of roles. Gives himself up to his own inclinations. Passivity is telling (But…moment) |
| Has this mind, so replete with ideas, imaginations fanciful and magnificent, which formed a world, whose existence depended on the life of its creator; — has this mind perished? | Ominous foreshadowing of Clerval’s demise. Present tense – shows that Victor is suffering now. Ominous echoes of creation and formation – but exists inside his head, so it’s not dangerous. (Has…persished) |
| Or (so my fond fancy imagined) some accident might meanwhile occur to destroy him, and put an end to my slavery forever. | Victor characteristically hopes for matters to be taken out of his hands. (Or…forever) |
| miserable wretch | Victor calls himself this, becoming almost the creature. (m..h) |
Frankenstein Quotes – Chapters 16 – 18
February 18, 2020